48 
NATUEE IN THE NATURE POETS. 
We are tempted to leap over a century, and quote the^ 
wonderful stanzas of In Memoriam : 
" My love has talked with rocks and trees ; 
He finds on misty mountain ground • 
His own vast shadow glory-crowned ; 
He sees liimself in all he sees." 
And his friend thus also beholds him : 
"Thy voice is on the rolling air; 
I hear thee where the waters run ; 
Thou standest in the rising sun, 
And in the setting thou art fair." 
But we must not linger in this truly fascinating field. 
In close proximity to Thomson we might mention alsa 
Robert Blair, who has the honour of adapting from a still 
earlier poet, and passing on to a later poet, with whom the 
glory of it always rests, one immortal line. 
Norris of Bemerton, in The Parting," had said : 
"How fading are the joys we dote upon; 
Like apparitions seen and gone; 
But those who soonest take their flight, 
Are the most exquisite and strong, 
Like angels' visits, short and hriglit ; 
Mortality's too weak to bear them long." 
Blair (in " The Grave," 1743) has it thus : 
" The good he scorned 
Stalked off reluctant, like an ill-used ghost, 
Not to return; or, if it did, in visits. 
Like those of angels, short and far hetiveen.-^ 
And thus Campbell {Pleasures of Hope) completes it : 
"What though my winged hours of bliss have been. 
Like angel visits, few and far between ? " 
Time would fail me to tell of Goldsmith, whom one cannot 
help loving, but who is too well known to need mention here.- 
He has a charm of his own. 
